Antimicrobial compositions for decontamination, disinfection and/or sanitization must have an effective microbial kill rate to be suitable for use as decontamination, disinfection and/or sanitization compositions. These antimicrobial compositions are generally desirable to be low in corrosion to the surfaces being treated and low in odor. In addition, these compositions generally will only contain enough of the microbial control agent to be effective for a given application. Having too much of the microbial control agent does not provide any advantages to the resulting composition, essentially wasting any excess microbial control agent in the composition. Having too little microbial control agent will make the composition less effective than needed for its intended use.
One particular class of antimicrobial compositions includes quaternary ammonium compounds, also known as “quats”, as a microbial control agent. Generally, quaternary ammonium compounds containing compositions have been used where disinfecting contact times of about 4 minutes or more are achievable. Contact time is the amount of time necessary to achieve an effective microbial kill rate to achieve disinfection. These quat containing disinfecting compositions may have up to about 3000 ppm of quats in the composition. Increasing the amount of quats above this level does not have much of appreciable effect in reducing the contact time below the 4 minute level.
Disinfecting compositions having shorter disinfecting times and wipes saturated with these disinfecting compositions are desirable in institutions, such as schools, and medical facilities such as hospitals. There is a need in the art for a disinfecting composition which is quat based that will have relatively short disinfecting times, preferably under 4 minutes and more preferably under 90 seconds and having at least a 5 Log10 reduction (destroying 99.999% of specified pathogenic organisms) for Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Such a composition may be characterized as a hospital grade disinfecting solution. It has been discovered that the disinfecting composition described herein, and the wipes saturated with the disinfecting composition provide an answer to that need.